Paterson: We’ll get an FMAP deal done today

Gov. David Paterson says there is a contingency plan to deal with a shortfall in Medicaid funding, and that he expects legislators will pass it today.

He said the Senate’s decision last night to table a vote on supplemental Medicaid funding adds urgency to the measure, which he has been calling for since May.

On CNBC’s Squawk Box, Paterson said the Senate’s action “it means that New York’s $9.2 billion deficit becomes a $10.2 billion deficit, and we’re going to have to put into effect across-the-board reductions in services to all our agencies which we’re hoping to pass today if the Medicaid doesn’t come, or we’ll factor in proportionally if the Medicaid money comes at ¾ of the rate we’re factoring in now.”

He expected the U.S. Senate would “probably take it up sometime between now and Friday.”

Turning to New York’s legislature, he at first chided them for not heeding his call immediately but then said “we seem to have done this by this week, so I guess it will be all right.”